Casey Anthony: Jeff Ashton shows sympathy for George, Cindy HAL

So far, Jeff Ashton’s media tour has been most interesting for the understanding he has shown George and Cindy Anthony, the oft-maligned parents of Casey Anthony.

Consider the former prosecutor’s remarks last night on HLN’s “Issues With Jane Velez-Mitchell.” Let’s face it: The Anthony family dynamics are one reason the story continues to fascinate millions.

“From everyone that we talked to outside of her relationship with Casey, Cindy appears to be a fairly honest, hard-working, well-liked person,” Ashton told Velez-Mitchell.

Ashton dismissed the theory that Casey learned her lying ways from her parents. “I think Cindy learned to lie from Casey, but is not very good at it,” Ashton said. “Neither she nor George is a good liar. When they did lie, it was obvious they were lying.”

Ashton won a rave review for “Imperfect Justice” from Velez-Mitchell, who said she couldn’t put the book down. In “Imperfect Justice,” Ashton details the prosecution of Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of murder in the 2008 death of her daughter, Caylee.

On “Issues,” Ashton recalled how prosecutors warned the couple’s attorney, Mark Lippman, that Casey Anthony’s defense team was coming after George at trial. In his opening statement, defense attorney Jose Baez accused George of molesting Casey.



George’s response to the prosecutors’ warning? “I can tell you that I never have seen anyone who looked like they had been just beaten as badly as George looked,” Ashton said. “He looked like Caylee had died all over again. And it was very remarkable to me that the only thing he really said to us is, he just looked at us and said, ‘It’s not true. None of it’s true.’ ”

Even at that point, Ashton had something kind to say about Cindy. “And in what I thought was a very nice, supportive gesture, Cindy looked at him and said, ‘Nobody believes it’ true, George. Nobody believes it,’ ” Ashton said.

But Ashton said there was no outrage from Cindy about her daughter’s allegations. “In fact, the only thing she said, that comes the closest to any realization is, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her.’ At least she was supportive of George, and that was good,” Asthon said.

On HLN’s “Joy Behar Show,” Ashton expanded on his comment that Cindy and Casey have “a lethally toxic co-dependent relationship,” which helped Casey win acquittal.

“The one piece of evidence we never really could produce and develop was the real relationship between Casey and Cindy,” Ashton said. “We had a lot of anecdotal evidence about that relationship. But in my opinion, Cindy could never be candid about it and really face up to the problems in that relationship, which I think would have given us more of a motive had we had that.”

What do you think about Ashton comments about the parents?


http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/11/casey-anthony-jeff-ashton-shows-sympathy-for-george-cindy.html